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The banking status of Socorro City was discussed in last week’s meeting.
Councilor Anton Salome said because there’s been discussion on cash reserves for government agencies, he requested that Ruby Lopez, City of Socorro’s finance director, give a report.
“I have every confidence that this administration is a responsible custodian of the funds that they received from the public. But I think it would be a good idea to share with the public how those cash reserves that the city has are invested,” Salome said.
Lopez reported that the city has about six million dollars at the New Mexico Investment Company.
“We did move it from First State Bank. It has grown in the past seven years,” Lopez said, “It was like 1 million, and now we’re up to like 6 million.”
She said because the GRT went down about $50,000 this month compared to last year, they’ll have to move money into the general fund to cover.
“We’ve had been kind of fortunate that New Mexico Investment has been paying a really good interest rate, so we’ve been getting at least $30,000 a month just on that interest, which we have a million in first aid bank. We’re getting like $80 a month.
So that money is budgeted in general fund, so even though the money is put away, it is still budgeted,” Lopez said.
Other business
Mayor Bhasker commented on the proposal to acquire the Hefner gravel Pit and wanted to clarify that he was not planning on putting a commercial water park.
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“Just to let them know that’s not something that is going to be slides and all kinds of stuff out there,” Bhasker said, “The first two things are the most important, which is EPA Superfund site to clean up the groundwater, and also for the conservancy to have a place to put the water when they have a two-inch rain that fills their ditches. And as you know, our ponds pump into the ditches, and if the ditch has water in it, it’s full; we can’t pump that water in there, so we would divert it into that pond.”
He also gave a heads-up that he is going to present an ordinance updating the mayor and councilors’ salaries to match inflation. He said the raise would be applied to future incoming positions, but he wanted to do it before the election.
“I think we want to keep up with the people’s interest in running and also to make sure that we keep up with the county commission,” Bhasker said.
All action items on the agenda, including the MRGEDA membership, SCOG CDBG agreement, and the Municipal Arterial Program, were approved unanimously.
The Socorro High School golf team presented the Mayor and council with sponsor t-shirts and the team was congratulated.
The next meeting is scheduled for 6 p.m. Tuesday, March 4.
